a delible mind

Just finishing up an email interview with a student who is studying Delible. She asked a question about the setting (why the suburb of Mississauga as opposed to the DTES) that renewed my thinking about suburbs as asocial spaces (something I thought a lot about while writing Delible). Here is part of my response:

The suburbs themselves interest me as a locale. They’re often portrayed idyllically in literary stories, but I wanted to explore how suburbs are (or aren’t) shaped for social uses. Suburbs aren’t built for walking or gathering – the suburbs are generally asocial in their organization. Especially now that I have a daughter, I really appreciate the way that the Commercial Drive neighbourhood is a series of beautifully social spaces, shared and inhabited by many different people. It’s quite remarkable. I can’t help but compare the experience of living here with living in a suburb, a neighbourhood of quiet homes set very far apart from gathering spaces (which tend to be very condensed commercial spaces, like malls). So, you get miles and miles of houses, then a node of commercial activity (a mall), then miles and miles of houses. In the Commercial Drive area, by comparison, social spaces dot the neighbourhood; residential, commercial and social areas intermingle. The asocial organization of suburbs makes driving a necessity. For a teen, who cannot drive, a suburb can be as entrapping as an island; it can be experienced as a real wasteland.